South Norfolk Council first to achieve 100% broadband coverage

South Norfolk Council has been successful in its ambition to be the first rural district in East Anglia to offer every home and business access to broadband download speeds of at least 10 Mbps.

Last year the Council welcomed the announcement by the government that everyone will have access to Broadband by 2020. To make thing happen sooner the Council worked with InTouch Systems to ensure Broadband coverage was improved, for everyone, as early as possible.

Councillor Michael Edney, Deputy Leader of South Norfolk Council said, “Once again we are leading the way in making sure that all of our residents and businesses have access to decent Broadband speeds. Working with InTouch Systems we are providing access to wireless Internet for homes and businesses who have not been able to benefit from the work done by Better Broadband for Norfolk.

“Our partner currently has 33 wireless transmitters: 20 on masts and buildings, 13 on churches; 24 located in South Norfolk and 9 just over our border. As we know WiFi doesn’t stop at boundaries and now our network is up and running all of our residents and businesses have access to download speeds of over 10 Mbps with many receiving 30 Mbps.”

South Norfolk Council invested £570,000 in the Better Broadband for Norfolk (BBFN) programme which has seen access to Superfast Broadband increase from 15% in 2013 to 90% now. This figure is expected to rise to over 91% by 2020.

However, BBFN could not reach everyone, so to help those residents and businesses improve their connection speed the Council invested a further £330,000 to deliver Broadband to the areas not covered.

Michael Edney added; “The Council will not directly benefit from our investment, but we are doing it, because it’s the right thing to do for our residents. A decent broadband service is essential in nearly every aspect of our modern lives – shopping, homework, video streaming, social networks and so much more. The previous broadband speeds left some residents and businesses feeling excluded and frustrated making it vitally important that we did something to help – and now we have.”

To find out more about broadband in your area and to check the coverage map visit www.betterbroadbandnorfolk.co.uk and www.itswisp.co.uk/